Fired Riverside police detective files claim against city

A Riverside police detective fired last week has filed a claim against the city alleging he was targeted with retaliation after he questioned his boss' handling of Chief Russ Leach's DUI traffic stop in a roomful of officers.

Chris Lanzillo, a past president of the Riverside Police Officers Association, made the filing Tuesday, five days after the hearing that ended his 17-year career with the Police Department. The claim accuses police management of opening an internal investigation against him hours after a roll-call meeting where he asked Acting Chief John De La Rosa why he waited two days to hand the probe of Leach's Feb. 8 traffic stop to the California Highway Patrol.

That afternoon, internal affairs began reviewing remarks Lanzillo made during a racial-sensitivity training course earlier in February, according to the claim. Lanzillo said this week that he used racial slurs, but added he did so jokingly in the context of the training.

"It wasn't malicious," he said. "There's no bias in me."

Lt. Ed Blevins, Lanzillo's supervisor, is identified as initiating the internal investigation. He said Wednesday he would not engage in a public back-and-forth, but looked forward to "explaining with a little more detail" his side in a formal lawsuit response, if it came to that.

Lanzillo said the reason given for his firing was "dishonesty" based on a discrepancy in accounts of another off-color remark he made during training.

He already has a pending federal lawsuit, filed earlier this year against the city, alleging he was transferred to a less desirable assignment in investigations and passed up for a spot in the child and sex crimes unit based on his prior union activity.